PRIMARY PERILS

Two countywide officials, one upstate and one
downstate, are fighting for their political survival in
Democratic primaries.

Upstate it is Mike Walsh, the New Castle County
sheriff for 30 years. Downstate it is John Brady, the
Sussex County recorder of deeds who has held one county
row office or another for 10 years.

Their peril is a surprise. Primaries in Delaware are
just not places that turn into the end of the line for
local officials, especially not people like Walsh and
Brady, both of whom are such familiar figures in
political circles.

Walsh has his jokes and his golf shirts and his
community roots that had him going to the same
Wilmington parochial school as his mother. Brady is a
portly country lawyer who looks as if he could have been
at home riding the legal circuit in 19th Century America
with Abraham Lincoln.

The races are not exactly as riveting as Markell-Carney
in 2008, but they bring a certain level of drama to
Primary Day, now less than two weeks away on Sept. 14.

As Erik Schramm, the New Castle County Democratic
chair, said about the sheriff's contest, "It will be
decided at eight o'clock that night when the polls
close. It's definitely too close to call."

It is not unheard-of for primaries to be the downfall
of incumbents, but it usually happens in situations
where one party is overwhelmingly dominant.

Wilmington is the obvious example. The city
electorate is about two-thirds Democratic, too big to be
assailed. It is no surprise at all that Jim Baker got to
be the mayor through a Democratic primary by ousting Jim
Sills, who got to be the mayor through a Democratic
primary by ousting Dan Frawley.

Walsh is being challenged for sheriff by Trinidad
Navarro, the public information officer for the New
Castle County police.

The intensity of their primary could be a new sign
that the county is trending the way of the city into
one-party rule. Democrats now account for 50 percent of
the county's voter registration. The county executive is
a Democrat, the council president is a Democrat, and so
are the four row officers.

In two of the last three elections for county
executive, the Republicans did not even field a
candidate. The Republicans are having a primary for
sheriff, but it is unlikely to matter.

Brady's primary opponent is Alma Roach, who frequents
the Recorder of Deeds Office and its property records as
a title searcher for a Georgetown law firm.

It is not hard to figure out the reason why Brady
could be vulnerable in a Democratic primary. He was a
Republican until he switched parties after the last
election.

By contrast, Roach married into a longstanding Sussex
Democratic family and dates her own political
involvement to her membership with the Young Democrats
in 1978.

Brady has fallen on hard times. He lost a 2008 race
for state insurance commissioner, an emotional defeat
that prompted him to abandon the Republican Party. His
law firm dissolved. He had heart surgery. He declared
bankruptcy.

There has not been much to Brady's candidacy. His
last campaign finance report showed he collected $100
and spent $75.

Brady recently filed as a "fusion" candidate with a
minor party to keep himself on the ballot for the
general election, regardless of the outcome of the
primary. Republican Scott Dailey also is running for the
office.

Primaries are notoriously tricky to predict, because
the turnout is so low. In the last two mid-term
elections, the Democrats got out 7 percent of their vote
in 2006 and 8 percent in 2002.

The New Castle County sheriff's race has an
additional wrinkle. Split endorsements.

Walsh was endorsed easily by the Wilmington
Democrats, the home base for Loretta Walsh, a city
councilwoman who is the chief deputy sheriff and his
former sister-in-law. Navarro won a close vote for the
New Castle County Democrats' endorsement.

Anything goes, particularly because the power of the
city to complicate an election should never be
underestimated. Its concentration of Democratic voters
inevitably makes it a battleground, not to mention the
urban politics are always alive with shifting loyalties,
side deals and conspiracies.

As Loretta Walsh put it, "As in every election, if
you want to have stories to tell your grandchildren, you
should work on Election Day in the city."